King of the Screwups by K.L. Going

Liam Geller has screwed up yet again. His dad found him drunk on top of the desk with an almost naked girl. This time, instead of yelling at him or grounding him, Liam's dad throws him out. There's no way he wants to stay with his military grandparents so his mom arranges for him to stay with his gay uncle in a trailer park.

Liam is not happy to see the uncle he barely knows and his uncle seems to be conflicted about his staying there. On his first day of school he gets in trouble and things go downhill from there. No matter what Liam does, he screws everything up. So he decides to change. His dad doesn't like the fact that he's popular, so, he'll be unpopular and maybe even join an academic club or two. But of course he screws even that up.

The one thing Liam is good at is understanding fashion and modeling, a trait he inherited from his mom, a former international supermodel. He even gets a job at the only clothing store in his uncle's small town. But Liam can't be proud of his success as it makes him even more popular than ever and that is the last thing that will impress his dad.

When will Liam realize that he needs to be true to himself and not his dad, instead of being the King of the Screwups?

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

It is supposed to be Anna and Frankie's Absolutely Best Summer Ever. Frankie's parents are taking Anna with them on the annual family vacation for three weeks to Zanzibar, California. Three weeks of sun and sand, and oh yeah, boys. Frankie is determined that Anna is going to lose her virginity this summer, and to make sure, they need to meet a boy a day, so twenty boys. Anna goes along with the idea, never intending to take it seriously. After all, she's already had a boyfriend although Frankie never knew. Matt asked Anna to keep it a secret until he could tell Frankie at the right moment. Matt was Frankie's brother. Was. He died right before he could tell Frankie.

Anna is trying to be there for Frankie but she's still keeping her relationship with Matt a secret. And now in California all she can think about is him. Until Sam comes on the scene. Sam is sweet, gorgeous, and makes Anna feel very special. She's sure she's falling in love with him, but what will happen to her memories of Matt if she does?

Will Anna's secret destroy her Twenty Boy Summer?

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

The Hate List. Valerie started the Hate List as a way to vent, to write down everything and everyone that was annoying her. Algebra, celebrities, homework, parents fighting, and Christy Bruter, the girl who'd been bothering Val since elementary school. When Val met Nick Levil as a freshman, they bonded over the Hate List, adding more and more names of kids in school who annoyed them or bullied them. Val never thought it was anything more than a way of getting frustration out until the day Nick brought a gun to school and targeted those whose names were on the Hate List.

Now people blame Val for creating the infamous list and she no longer knows who she is. Villain for coming up with the list? Victim for being taken in by Nick? Or Hero for saving the life of a girl she didn't even like and getting shot in the process? She can't shake the momories of the day and trying to move on with her life is difficult. It takes all her strength to go back to school and face her old friends who now hate her. And regardless of what people tell her to think, and what he did, she still misses and cares for Nick.

All this started as a simple joke that became so much more. But how can Val move on and create a new life after the Hate List?

Florida Teens Read

We are in the middle of our reading for the Florida Teens Read program, and there are rarely any books left on the shelf! It is a very popular list this year. One student has already read all 15 titles, and several students are getting close.

Here is the list:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
Generation Dead by Daniel Waters
Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
Homeboyz by Alan Sitomer
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Market by J.M Steele
Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
Shift by Jennifer Bradbury
Suck It Up by Brian Meehl
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
Unwind by Neal Shusterman

My prediction? (So far I've been 3 for 3!) The Hunger Games followed by Unwind. Voting is the month of April so we'll see if I'm right!

Last Exit to Normal by Michael Harmon

It's not my fault my father is gay, but sometimes it seems like it. He realized he was gay when I was fourteen, ruining my life and causing my mom to walk out the door. Now, three years later, we're sitting in a small town in Montana of all places, just becasue I made a teny little mistake that got me arrested. Montana, where my dad's boyfriend was from, the same town he was run out of for being gay. How is a punk skater with his hair in spikes going to fit in in this redneck, backwards town?

Things get worse in a hurry. Our neighbor is extremely homophobic and is mad at us for calling the Sheriff on him because he was beating his eleven year old son. Somehow I've made an enemy of the town bully, and I fell in love with a beautiful girl who has a huge, muscular, over-protective borther. To top it all off, there's not a decent place to skateboard in the entire town!

How am I ever going to fit in and survive in a place like this? Honestly, the Last Exit to Normal is anything but!

A Belated Welcome Back

Welcome back! I've finally made time to sit and blog (the 5 minutes a day I'm not running around). This year will be a difficult year in many areas, finance, time management, assessment and more. I'm working solo this year, but luckily I have many wonderful student aides helping me.

Upcoming events:

• The Florida Association of Media in Education conference next week in Orlando
• Florida Teens Read has some awesome books this year!
• Poetry Out Loud will be starting soon
• Teens Read Week
• Banned Books Week
• Book club starting (first book to read will be Thirteen Reasons Why)

Please be aware that the library will be closed one lunch, alternating each day.

Here's to a great year!

New Books

Our last shipment has arrived for the school year. Hard to believe! We have Breaking Dawn in Spanish, Audacity of Hope and Dreams From My Father by President Obama, Homeboyz, Hip-Hop High School, and the Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez by Alan Sitomer, the Other Queen by Phillipa Gregory, Psychology Demystified, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, the House of Night series by P.C. Cast, What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell and many others!

Unfortunately I also had to buy replacement copies of many books due to students leaving the district with books still checked out. I have lost approximately $1000 this way this year (it's been a bad year for that). With only $4300 in my budget, this is a huge chunk. I'll be doing massive fundraising next year!

Come in and check out our new book shelf! There's a book for everyone!

Win No Library Late Fees for a Year!

Hate paying late fees! You only have a few days left to win a free ride on late fees until April 2010! It's easy, just write a book review on our Destiny Library Card Catalog or on our Media Center Web Page. You may enter multiple times by reviewing more than one book. One lucky person will be chosen to have NO late fees until 2010. It could be you!

Superintendent's Awards

The last day of reading for the Superintendent's Ultimate Reading Award is today! Remember that 15 titles is the minimum number of books to read. Books read in class and for reading logs as well as books that you listened to count! If you read more than 15 add them to your list too as I count up how many books we read as a school and put the total number read on your certificate. Your reading list needs to be handed in to me on Mon. Apr. 20.

The award ceremony is on Fri. May 15 in the Media Center and Cafeteria from 8 to 8:30ish.

National Library Week

It is the last day of our fine amnesty week in celebration of National Library Week. We have had many late books returned and the students are very happy to have their fines waived. Several students have even told us that we shouldn't waive the fees as we need the money. True we would have collected more late fees but I'd rather have the books returned. And we have received some that were checked out last school year!

But on Monday it is back to normal so last chance to get your late books in!

Florida Teens Read Voting

It is now time to vote for your favorite Florida Teens Read book! Go here to vote. Voting is open until April 30th. You must have read a minimum of 3 of the following books in order to vote: Avalon High, Boot Camp, The Christopher Killer, City of Bones, Deadline, Firestorm, Incantation, Life As We Knew It, A Long Way Gone, The Nature of Jade, Street Love, Thirteen Reasons Why, A Thousand Splendid Suns, What Happened to Cass McBride, and Wicked Lovely.

Which will be the winner of this coveted award? You decide!

Teen Tech Week

Teen Tech Week was several weeks ago, during the FCAT testing. So instead we celebrated "Press Play @ Your Library" all month long. We had a display of technology, sports, and music books and held our first ever playlist contest. Students made playlists (soundtracks) for their favorite books. Mr. Ellsworth wanted to participate too, just ask him what songs he chose for Of Mice and Men! I must admit I had problems with my Harry Potter playlist, does anyone have any suggestions?

Congrats to Jasmine and Holly for winning $15 iTunes gift certificates for their playlists. Start preparing yours for next year and stay tuned for our School Library Month contest.

Poetry Out Loud update

I am happy to announce that Luana did a wonderful job of representing CSHS at the state Poetry Out Loud final. She competed against representatives of approximately 50 other high schools. Although she did not move on to the final round, we are very proud of her. She says she had fun and learned a lot for next year. So, everyone, brush up on your poetry recitation skills now!

The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky

Secrets. Secrets can create a bond. Secrets can hide the truth. Secrets can destroy a family.

Grace never saw the man she hit with the car in the pouring rain. Her mother, Deborah, sitting in the passenger seat didn't see him either. Worried about her younger son who was alone, Deborah sent Grace home. The police just assume that Deborah was driving, and in an attempt to protect her daughter, Deborah doesn't bother to correct them. She figures if she and Grace stay silent, everything will be okay.

But the man dies and even though the police find there was no way Deborah and Grace could have avoided him, his widow wishes to press charges. Grace feels like her whole life is falling apart, and her mother, normally so strong and capable of taking care of everything, doesn't know how to fix this. But what her mother also doesn't know is that Grace is hiding a small secret of her own about that night.

A secret between a mother and daughter is usually a good thing. But not the Secret Between Us.

Poetry Out Loud contest winners

We had a great Poetry Out Loud competition here at CSHS! This was the first year for the competition, and I would like to especially thank Mr. Ellsworth, Ms. Lyons, and Ms. Fry for supporting the contest wholeheartedly. Students in their English classes memorized and recited poems, and the classroom winners competed in the PAC on Jan. 29 for the school title. There were 14 students who competed, Amber V., Corinna H., Wyatt J., Javi S., Devin W., Taelor C., AnaMaria P., Nick Q., Amanda W., Chris R., Cynthia S., Taylor A., Luana P., and Kayla R. They all did an excellent job. It is very difficult to get up and recite poetry on stage in front of your classmates.

Luana, AnaMaria, and Taylor were our top three contestants, and Luana will continue on to the state finals in Tallahassee in March. The winner of the state final will continue to Washington D.C. to compete for $20,000 in scholarship money.

Our judges were Principal Ron Martin, Library Aide Dawn Schurman, District Reading Specialist Rob Taylor, and Island Silver and Spice owner Glenn Saiger. Prizes were donated by the Media Center, Dr. Penny Bower of Hooked on Books, and Cover to Cover bookstore.

Next year hopefully we'll be more prepared instead of learning about this great program at the last minute. Also, more classes will be interested in participating. It was great to hear students talk about poetry and share their poems. The ones who were not able to watch all wanted to hear who won, and the others wanted to participate. Some are already planning their poems for next year! Poetry Out Loud definitely succeeds in getting teenagers interested in poetry!

Poetry Out Loud

We are privileged and excited to be participating in the Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest this year. 3 teachers have volunteered their classes for this pilot project for Monroe District. We are going to memorize and recite many different poems, and each classroom winner will recite in the PAC in January for our school competition. The winning student will travel to Tallahassee in March to participate at the state finals.

Poetry is an important and beautiful part of literature, but one that unfortunately, many students do not fully appreciate. Memorizing a poem and reciting it helps us better understand and love poetry. Poetry is after all, meant to be spoken aloud, like music. This will be a fun way to further our knowledge of poetry and learn to speak in public.

New class project

Take a look at http://www.frysbookclub.blogspot.com and see what Ms. Fry and I are working on with her students! The students are reading and responding to questions that are posted biweekly. The questions are based mainly upon class reading, but some weeks will require them to think about their reading log or recreational reading books. Students are also responding to their classmates. The first week the question was about their favorite books, and we had quite a discussion going on about The Giving Tree, The Outsiders, and of course, Twilight!

Generation Dead by Daniel Waters

What would you do if the dead don't stay dead? All over America, dead teenagers are coming back to life. Nobody knows why. They are trying to act like regular kids, they go to school and listen to music. But people are not prepared to accept the living impaired or differently biotic. Instead, they call them zombies, corpsicles or dead heads.

Phoebe isn't sure what to think of the differently biotic kids at her school. There's Collette, a former friend of hers whom she hasn't talked to since she died. And then there's Tommy. For some reason, Phoebe can't explain it, she's interested in Tommy Williams. Tommy isn't your regular differently biotic kid. He can talk and move faster and he's trying out for the football team, which goes over real well at prejudiced Oakvale High.

As Phoebe and Tommy become friends, she unknowingly draws her other friends into the tensions surrounding the differently biotic and traditional kids. As the violence against the dead kids grows, Phoebe, Tommy, and their friends try to promote peace and tolerance.

But there are some who believe the dead should stay dead, and they're out to permanently kill all of the Generation Dead.

Teen Read Week

Come celebrate Teen Read Week at the library Oct. 12 through Oct. 18. We have lots of Books With Bite!

Teen Read Week celebrates the right of teens to read for fun and is sponsored by the Young Adult Library Association. Come by and check out a fun vampire or creature book to celebrate with. Remember, reading is fun and also helps you learn!

Don't forget to vote for the Teens Top Ten. This is the only national book list that is chosen by teens. There are some great books nominated, so be sure to go to http://http//www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/teenstopten/teenstopten.cfm and choose your favorite.

Have fun reading Books With Bite!

FAME conference

Wow, what a conference. I enjoy going to the Florida Association of Media in Education conference each year. I always learn a lot that I can use to improve the Media center and this year's conference was no exception. It was last week at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Kissimmee and the theme was Intellectual FREADom.

First up was a morning spent with Joyce Valenza, school librarian extraordinaire. She showed us how to use Web 2.0 technologies in our media centers and collaborating with teachers. I am familiar with some technologies such as blogs and wikis, but her session took things a step further and demonstrated how students can actively participate in their learning by using these applications. I also learned about iGoogle and how to tailor it to classroom and professional learning. (I hope I can access that here with our filters...). Photo and image sites, making video sites, and other open access sites were all demonstrated. Her view is "Learning is all about opening boxes" and it is our job to open boxes for our students. Very inspiring!

A high point of library conferences is the opportunity to meet authors. I was lucky enough to meet Marc Aronson, Lois Lowry, Chris Crutcher, and Susan Beth Pfeffer. Lois Lowry and Chris Crutcher have been challenged many times and they are huge proponents of the Freedom to Read. Susan Beth Pfeffer discussed how she came to write her Florida Teens Read book, Life as We Knew It. Apparently she enjoyed writing it and having the world come to an end. Excellent book, by the way.

I also went to sessions on writing in the media center, using bibliographies and book lists to hook readers and collaborate with teachers, and using blogs and wikis with Florida Teens Read books. Plus, I had my Florida Teens Read committee meeting. I also wished I had an unlimited budget when it came time to visit the exhibit hall. I am looking forward to sharing what I learned with my students and teachers.

Here's looking forward to next year!